Hey, stranger

Hello, blog. It's been a long time since I've been here. How's life in the pixel lane? You look nice these days. Me? Well I've redesigned the GreenSmith site, got a spiff new loghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifo completed (at last!) and am pretty pleased with how it's come out. Vanessa is a few days from finishing working at Healthy Now (at last!) and I have many possibilities for engagements with GreenSmith in the pot, simmering and bubbling, just this side of bubbling up and getting really juicy. I went to a sustainable business gathering in Chico today, the first in a new initiative there. I went with Robert of Velocity 7 a very keen firm that's here in Nevada City. Earlier this year I got some information on them, and decided to write a succinct, compelling invitation to connect. And we did. It's been very interesting, and affirming of my own abilities, so far.

You know, I don't think I feel like writing tonight, think I'm going to stop for now. Vanessa is writing next to me, and it's distracting. I think I'd rather read, for now.

But on that note, Vanessa has committed to writing every day, for a year. And from the first entry I saw, it looks great, has a nice voice, and I could see it beig made into a book. She was very inspired by the book Eat, Love, Pray and I can hear it in her writing. She claims she writes like this in her journals all the time, and if so, I say it's time for the world to read! For her, writing in a computer this time makes it different, more concrete, and she's committed to doing it every day for a year. Go Vanessa!

Highrises, 4x4s, and the Wisdom Cafe

Well whoopie dang, here I am, a few days before Christmas, at the Wisdom cafe, sunlight making rainbows in my left eye corner, shining through my eyelashes from the side. It's been a wee huge (is there such a thing? Dunno, somehow it sounds right to my fingers) time since I've written in here. Why? Well shoot, life's been happening, and I've been feeling pretty driven to get the wheels turning on my consulting practice. Thanks to Terra and her revolving cast of advisors from the other side, who at this moment seem to have a business bent, plus Terra's own well seasoned advice, I've been getting many insights as to directions to go with it.

This includes contacting a web host/tech business services company based up in Chico, and offering a taster of my services to be bundled as part of new business packages. And also creating a Code of Conduct for myself, a How I Work document for clients, and a questionnaire for them to get the juices flowing and the thoughts clarifying before I meet them for the first time. This, and a spiffy new site (link here) despite my being in huge resistance/avoidance/fear about doing the site, has all happened in this past month. I'm really proud of how well the site came out, thanks to some great advice from another consultant, one of the architects behind Treehugger.com, and one of the people I connected with while doing the social media/blog campaign for Act2. And yes, I've managed to forge an alliance with that company in Chico. It's been a bit of a slow train, that alliance, but it's happening.

Twice, perhaps three times, I've reached the man behind it, when he "happened" to be free, in between clients. I had to smile, the timing's just being lined up in my favor. The Universe, it's on my side yo. This guy is also a limo driver on weekends, as well as running this company, and raising two children. In the past I might have felt lazy in comparison, but now I just see what he's doing, look at what I am doing, and know that they're both fine.

In many ways my life has been turning for the healthier. Like right now, another Terra recommendation, taking a whole day, once a week, for meandering, dreaming...and offroading, woot! Yep, it seems each week I do this (Friday is my day) I've ended up on muddy roads. Following my nose, intuition, angels on my shoulders, whatever it is, I go driving, and see where it leads. The first week I went down You Bet road. How could I not, with a name like that? So I'm going down it, beauty all around, big giant truck behind me, and I'm ably managing its curves, when JAMBAGOONGAAYiyiyiyiBumpetaBumpetarumblerumble, I'm suddenly on a dirt road.

What was once a civilized street with upscalish houses suddenly was...dirty. Muddy. Lovely. I come up to this opening in the trees, and there's a couple of guys standing there, checking the view. Bookmarked it to come back. Onward I go, slack jawed at the tire tracks going up and down the 20 foot high sides of the road. I was squealing with glee, I LOVE finding things like this, the unexpected bits, the places not commonly explored. At least by mere mortals like myself.

Fortunately our car is all wheel drive, so I'm fine. Where am I? No idea. Perfect. Continuing downdowndown it just gets more interesting. At one point, I spied a perhaps 60 foot high hillside, again with tire tracks somehow running up the entire height of it. I can just hear the phantom "YeeeeeeeeMutherfuckingHaaaaaaaa"s echoing there. I've stumbled upon where I'm guessing my neighbors across the way go. I always wondered, seeing these vehicles when in the Bay Area, and even here, where do they go? Is it all for looks? No. It's here. It's real. And it looks real fun. I found a good, deepish, mud puddle, and gunned it while going through there. Oh yes. Life is good.

And so it's gone these past several weeks, getting my exploring jones satiated, taking time to mentally meander here in the Wisdom Cafe. It's a blessing for sure.

Now if I can only find the right tool(s) to run my business. I've been using HighRise for the past month, which does a nice job with linking contacts with what I said, what I promised, with specific tasks. It has been a step forward to helping to manage the at times whirling chaos that is my brain. And yet, it's lacking in some ways that makes it not the whole enchilada. Just some stupidness, that the company's other online tools, tools of less sophistication, have. I think they do things like this on purpose, so when they do roll out changes, they get to be heros. Feh.

So onward I look, and it's been causing me (self induced) stress, getting anxious about finding the best tools for a business that I don't yet know what it's going to look like, who or if I'll be working with others. Does it matter if what I choose is platform specific? Is choosing something web based a vulnerability if the web isn't behaving? There are times, often, when I just have to chuckle, to step back, get way up high above it all, and see, this really doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things. I've managed to make it this far without the tools I seek.

And yet, there's this sense of laying foundation for what looks like, judging by the flood of strong connections and alliances I've been creating, that have just jumped in my lap, that it is really important to get all the ducks lined up, tails a-wagging, pistons all firing, and other such metaphors. 2008's going to be banner year. And so, I breath, and know, it will all happen, as it's meant to. In my search this week, I've gotten so much great advice, from both strangers and friends. Really generous. I'm so lucky. Hopefully I'll see the Daylite, soon. Or Copper out. Ok Paul, stop typing, time to pick Vanessa up!

Crazy fish, yellow Grandpa, and the naked tree..

Sounds like a Hunter S. Thompson book, eh? Nah, it's just a day in the life of Vanessa and I. Looking out my window here, our tree that but a week ago was full of firey red orange leaves, accelerated the dropping, and just as I wondered, sweaty from raking, where are all these leaves coming from, I don't see a noticeable reduction, it, overnight, goes WUMP! Now there's perhaps 5% of the leaves on there, and it's a peculiar sensation, not having this cover in the front of our house. I typically meditate while sitting in the front window, the trees providing privacy, while still allowing a nice view. Now...you can see to the street, and so can people walking by. Ah well, I still love that spot.

I am in a pretty good spot now, having had a super awesome day yesterday. It started with an email from the folks at Bright Green Talent, a green biz focused recruiting agency I found in London. I found them on the Sustainability Forum http://sustainabilityforum.com/ and was intrigued by their very positive, proactive feel. I enquired about whether they might have some telecommute jobs, or know of some interesting ones in the US. What followed was many emails ping ponged, and during that time I find out that they're going to be opening a US division, in San Diego (!?) where one of the owners lives part time. Yesterday morning I wake to find an email from them gushing about my resume, both the content and the design of it (thanks Apple!) and then proposing four options, including keeping an eye out for telecommute jobs and projects, jobs in the UK, jobs here when they've got things going stateside, and then the kicker - the possibility of helping in getting that stateside operation established! Wow, what a way to start the day!

Then it continued with a meeting with one of my GreenSmith clients. I was working like crazy on this project to do a positioning piece for here business overall, and the multiple parts, existing and yet to exist. I had the same feeling I've had while working on projects at Presidio: Can I do this? Am I making any sense? Is this going to be useful to her? Should I go look up in books from Presidio what to do? A lot of anxiousness to work through. But then, I found my groove, got confident in my own abilities and intuition, and got some good ideas flowing and some organization of my thoughts happening.

I go to meet her, and take her on a tour through what I've done. She looks at me and says, "This is such a relief." She, like many entrepreneurs, is great at what she does, but not so great at explaining it. She then went through the whole thing herself, and over and over was complementing how it hit the mark for what she was looking for. And then I asked if she'd like to continue working together. Absolutely, she said, and told me that she really liked my writing, felt I understood her business well, and wanted me to be the one helping write the material for the revamping of her website. She was heading out for a quick holiday, to the wonderful sounding Yosemite Bug, a relaxed, low key place near Yosemite, with cheap good eats, a spa, and both indoor and structured tent (ie safari tent) accomodations. Vanessa and I just make a jaunt there soon, it sounds great www.yosemitebug.com

Speaking of writing, a few days earlier marked my first post as a regular contributor to Triple Pundit, an integrative bottom line (aka sustainable/green business) blog. Nick Aster, the wizard behind the curtain, said, "This post is outstanding. Really a very good job, I think this is the best I've seen you write. Solid information, totally interesting, and clear link to business/industry." Check it out for yourself, at http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/the-30-year-laptop-battery-fac-002641.php Then yesterday, after a successful, thought provoking first call on the Strategic Sustainability Consultant Network meeting, I was inspired to write another article, which went from the Five Kingdoms model of design, into how those lovely juice pack containers, not typically recyclable, now have a chance, via creative use of natural resources. http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/a-juicy-issue-002662.php

Then Vanessa came home, and we headed out for what we'd planned to do, work out. Needed to get a few groceries, and decided to go for a walk around the area first. We soon discoverd this great trail, which led through this area with the reddest dirt we've yet seen around here. Then we ended up somewhere in the middle of Sierra College, and were walking towards a pond. There by the water was what looked like a quarter operated candy machine. Huh?! Sugar everywhere, geeez! But on closer inspection, it turned out to be Koi food. They seemed to be in on the game, as we soon had a flock of them approaching us. Vanessa got that little girl glint in her eye and asked if I had a quarter. Many, I had.

So we got some, and I took a few of the pellets, leaving the rest for her. Her gleeful enthusiasm got me going. It was amazing to watch in action, like a live video game. There was some huuuuge fish in there, and tiny, thumbnail sized ones too. In between were theses speedy, stealthy orange ones. And, king of them all, this one that Vanessa dubbed the yellow grandpa. He was slow, steady, and boy did he get a lot of the pellets! I felt a little bad for some fo the older, bigger ones, as they were so big, they had to arc their body out of the water to get their mouth at the level of the pellet. Often, the orange ones would zing in, snatching it right in front of the gaping mouth of the biggies, turning in a quick U shape to get out of there. It got me thinking about seeing myself, giving a business presentation, talking about these fish as a metaphor for businesses.

She and I just sat there, continuing to feed the fish, aiming to get them to particular ones, rooting for them, as the sun went down. We had no idea where we were, and how to get back to the market we were meant to go shopping at. But it didn't matter :-) We walked, and came upon a class full of an orchestra's worth of players, the teacher leaning on his desk, furiously conducting. Vanessa and I grinned at each other. Life in this town is sure nice...

Magic

Yesterday Vanessa and I were sitting at the dining table at lunch, and in mid sentence, Vanessa squealed in delight like a small child, jumping up and down and covering her mouth, looking out the window. "What? What's going on?" I said, a grin on my face, and curiosity in my mind. She began to tell me that a hummingbird had flown right up to the window, stayed there looking at her, and then...midsentence again it came by. I looked, but didn't see it. I was in a foul mood, so maybe it wasn't time. Animals appearing to you have meaning, and the Hummingbird, from what I recall, it was especially so.

I semi dismissed it, as I rationalized it was a bird bonking into a window it didn't see. But then, today, about 15 minutes ago, there was a hummingbird, deliberately flying up to the window, and hovering, at eye level to me. That was no mistake...

While looking for an image to include, there was a brief synopsis of their significance. It said: "Symbolizes Sweetness.
Messages and Meanings: infinity, creativity, promise, joyfulness"

Nice. Guess I was ready to see it, too...

PPS

Boy I'm going blog crazy today! I went to what turns out to be the Myspace page of just the lead singer of the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band. It has the song Sounds of Loneliness on it, the one I mentioned getting teary, hearing it Saturday. Wow, don't know what it is, but it just hits deep, is so haunting. Beautiful. http://www.myspace.com/paigeandersonbluegrass

PS

One other thing I want to mention before I forget it: We had the opposite of the punks dancing in the midst of a full on squaredance session that we witnessed at the county fair in August: At yesterday's happenings, they had a band called Mystafya. They were one of the best reggae bands I've long seen. They had a pair of singers up front, one was of a classic "lover's rock" silky smooth mold, in a track suite with a white headband, himself round and smooth, very warm and friendly. Vocal honey, indeed. The other guy was of the "chant down Babylon" mold, little dreads up top, looking like he's experienced it all, and has the fight in 'im, ya mon! :-9 Anyway, several of us were dancing, and over to our right, there was this older couple, both with cowboy hats, she with fanny pack, country dancing together. And they didn't just do it for one song, they were in it for the long haul. I love how things blend together here...

and one more thing - I just had a call with one of my clients, who is now talking about things into next year. Sounds like I'm a hit. A nice feeling indeed. All this, on a Monday, a day that's often been a slump/funk one for me. I had to smile as I was on this call, being very professional, making all these good points, feeling I was truly on his level and of valuable service...and halfway throught it Joe jumped up on my lap. I get to give my kittie love, do business, and work it together just fine. I'm digging this for sure :-)

I'm going to try and get better pictures of the trees, the cheapo digital camera we have seems to like to bleach out colors. Or you can just imagine it, about three times more vibrant then the picture in the post below...

be well my friends.

You know we're beyond the tipping point when...

It became clear to me that we are indeed past the tipping point in terms of things sustainable when, while having dinner with my parents, who are by no means progressive, and in fact can be downright regressive at times, my mother asked the waitress of the fish she was considering ordering, was it wild caught or farmed. When told it was farmed, she chose the chicken. I had to struggle to keep my jaw from dropping to the table, and/or high fiving my 70+ year old mom. Oops I mean 29. Sorry Mom. My dad, ever the joker, said hey, is that chicken free range? Your mom used to think that meant it didn't cost anything. The times they are a changin'...

We had one of those weekends that just confirmed strongly that we made a good decision being here. Well let me back up - Vanessa a few days earlier said she wanted us to spend time with each other in the evenings, not working, not boinging around the internet, not cleaning the house, just enjoying being with each other. So I've decided to be firmer about when/how I use the computer, do work etc, and it's been really nice. We don't always do things together, we may just be reading, but overall, it's been nice, and I'm glad to have a reason to give myself boundaries in terms of life/work balance.

The tree outside my window has gone from having red highlights to being a redhead with golden green highlights. She seems to be losing some hair though too. Too much dyeing? I'm going to go out and do some raking later today. Raking, I haven't done that since I lived at my parents, and my job was to rake the rotten oranges our from under our orange trees. What foul, nasty stuff that was, eeyuck! Now, I actually *want* to do raking, as I find this gardening thing meditative. It helps not to have bug infested rotting fruit flesh to sift through, ay carumba!



So back to this weekend: Saturday we went to the Loma Rica Ranch harvest festival, where Vanessa was working for her company, Healthy Now. She, in the past two weeks, has created a new position for herself there, and gotten a nice pay raise in the process. Her boss said, upon her presenting her ideas on this new position, said that he had high standards, ones that most people didn't meet, not even himself, and that she had actually far exceeded his. Go Vanessa!

While wandering the festival with Vanessa, we heard these great singers, and were surprised to find that they were children! It was the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band. It was a whole family, four children and the parents. The oldest daughter, 13, was up fron, with the two next youngest kids harmonizing with her. This was beyond novelty, they were truly talented! The boy just made me laugh, he would break out in a full face grin often, not able to help himself. He'd try to look serious, but it just couldn't be held back. The father just stood back, working the banjo, guitar, etc, eyes half lidded, just looking so serene and happy. The mother was all action, just moving it, on the stand up bass. I was blown away by their musical skills, each of the kids soloing frequently, very well. One song, the Sounds of Loneliness, had me getting a bit teary, it just hit a cord deep inside...

Something I've noticed repeatedly this weekend, is that people in general just seem to have/take more time with you, just being present. That includes people in stores, in restaurants, and friends in general. It's just so nice to experience this. And over and over, we've been welcomed by so many people. Makes a smile grow on my face...

So after the harvest fair, my parents showed up. And, surprise of all surprises, the night was totally pleasant. No drama, no bad taste in your mouth. Just two parents, happy to see us, and generally in good spirits themselves, and interested in what we were up to, and expressive about how cool they thought it all was. Wow, what a great change. It may have something to do with a big realization I had around my parents a few weeks ago, letting go of some long buried feelings, forgiving them. Not in person, but on an energetic level. But that's another story. I nearly cried when my mom gave me a different hug then she ever has, you could feel she really meant it, and wanted me to know it. Hard to explain, but perhaps you know what I mean...

Then there was yesterday, Sunday. We slept in, just enjoying each other's company, then instead of driving, we walked to the harvest fair happening at Briar Patch, our local version of Whole Foods, or rather, Rainbow Grocery, as it's a co-op market. They had all sorts of local organic farmers, food purveyors of different sorts, and the strangest piece of equipment I've long seen, this machine that jiggles you back and forth really quick, and standing at different angles isolates different muscles. It's like concentrated exercise apparently, only without the cardio part, which needs to happen real time of course, but the rest, sure, including endorphins release. Vanessa was laughing and laaaaughing, and said I WANT one of these! She looked like she was hula hooping on caffeine.

You know you're in a different place when you're talking with an organic rancher, complete with leathered face from a lifetime outside, telling us the finer points of buying a quarter of a cow. Yes, having a particular cow, with the parts you select, cut and wrapped, delivered to your door, 7 cubic feet worth. Oh my. Next to him was a local honey seller, who was teaching the kids about pollination and it's importance. We also met some people I have a feeling will soon be friends, the people behind Garden Fare who just felt like they were on the same page as us, being in their 30s, full of enthusiasm, having their stuff together, grounded, yet playful and curious like kids. Patrick was saying he was more interested in doing then complaining. Here here.

And I think here here is where I'm going to stop stop. Well except to say that after that event, we came home and Vanessa gave me a massage. Life is good...

I don't know if anybody's reading, but it was a pleasure sharing, and I hope you have a great week...